Dispute Resolution Practices among Urban and Rural Barangays in Butuan City

The Katarungang Pambarangay (Barangay Justice System) provides a community-based mechanism for settling disputes without resorting to formal litigation, thereby easing the caseload of Philippine trial courts. This quantitative descriptive study examined the dispute resolution practices of mediation, conciliation, and arbitration across forty-five barangays in Butuan City, Philippines, encompassing twenty-seven urban poblacion barangays and eighteen centrally located rural barangays. Two hundred ninety-seven respondents, comprising two hundred fifty-two Lupong Tagapamayapa (Pacifying Committee) members and forty-five Punong Barangay (barangay chairpersons), completed a modified survey questionnaire measuring respondent profile, barangay caseload profile, and the extent of practice of the three dispute settlement mechanisms. Frequency and percentage, weighted mean, and nonparametric comparative tests (Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and chi-square) were used to treat the data. The typical respondent was female, aged forty-one years or older, and had attained at least secondary or tertiary education. Financial, family, and neighbor disputes were the most frequently filed complaints. Mediation and conciliation were consistently rated "Always Practiced," while arbitration was rated only "Often Practiced" to "Sometimes Practiced," confirming that arbitration is invoked mainly when mediation and conciliation fail. No significant difference emerged between Lupong Tagapamayapa and Punong Barangay perceptions in most comparisons, but significant variation surfaced across individual barangays. The study concludes that the Katarungang Pambarangay functions as an active and generally effective grassroots justice mechanism anchored on voluntary, relationship-preserving settlement rather than binding adjudication, and recommends standardized training and monitoring to reduce barangay-to-barangay inconsistency.